In modern times, commercial feedlots are used extensively to feed thousands of head of cattle or other animals at various stages of growth. The major reason for using an animal feedlot to feed cattle rather than the "open range", is to expedite the cattle growth process and thus be able to bring cattle to the market in a shorter time period.
Within an animal feedlot, cattle are physically contained in cattle pens, each of which has a feedbunk to receive feed. Ownership of cattle in the feedlot is defined by unique lot numbers associated with the group(s) of cattle in each pen. The number of cattle in an owner's lot can vary and may occupy a fraction of one or more cattle pens. Within a particular pen, cattle are fed the same feed ration, (i.e. the same type and quantity of feed). In order to accommodate cattle at various stages of growth or which require special feeding because they are sick, undernourished or the like, the feedlot comprises a large number of pens.
Generally, feeding cattle in a feedlot involves checking each pen daily to determine the ration quantity to be fed to the cattle therein at each particular feeding cycle during that day, the condition of the cattle, and the condition of the pen. At a feedmill, feed trucks are then loaded with appropriate quantities of feed for delivery during a particular feeding cycle. Thereafter, the loaded feed trucks are driven to the feedbunks and the assigned ration quantity for each pen is dispensed in its feedbunk. The above process is then repeated for each designated feeding cycle. Owing to the large number of feed ration quantities assigned for delivery each day in the feedlot, feeding animals in a large feedlot has become an enormously complex and time-consuming process.
It is well known in the art to use computers to simplify feedlot management operations. In their 1984 PC World article "Computers Ride The Range", Eric Brown and John Faulkner explain that large feedlots were the first cattle operations to utilize computers in order to simplify calculations on feed, cattle movements, payroll and accounting, invoicing and least-cost feed blending. From such calculations, market projections, "break-even prices" on any given head of cattle, and analyzable historical records can be easily created while permitting feedlot managers to keep track of virtually all overhead costs, from labor and equipment costs, down to the last bushel of corn or gram of micro-nutrients. Computer systems of the above type are generally described in the articles: "Homestead Management Systems' Feedlot Planner and Hay Planner" by Wayne Forest, published on pages 40-44 of the September 1985 issue of Agricomp magazine; and "Rations and Feedlot Monitoring" by Carl Alexander, published on pages 107-112 of Computer Applications in Feeding and Management of Animals, November 1984. The use of computer systems to simulate and thus predict the growth process of cattle in a feedlot is disclosed in the article "OSU Feedlot (Fortran)" by Donald R. Gill, on pages 93-106 of Computer Applications in Feeding and Management of Animals, supra.
It is also well known to use portable computing equipment in order to facilitate the assignment and delivery of feed rations in a feedlot. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,008,821 to Pratt, et al. discloses one prior art system in which portable computers are used in feed ration assignment and delivery operations. As disclosed, this prior art computer system uses portable computers during the feed ration assignment and delivery process. Using such computers, the feedbunk reader assigns particular feedtrucks and drivers to deliver specified loads of feed to specified sequences of pens along a prioritized feed route during each physical feeding cycle. Thereafter, the specified feed loads are loaded onto preassigned feed delivery vehicles, and then the feed delivery vehicles dispense the feed rations into the feedbunks associated with the corresponding animal pens along the prioritized feeding route.
In order to carry out feed delivery operations, known feed delivery vehicles use a motor-driven auger to dispense the preassigned amount of feed ration from the vehicle into and along the length of the corresponding feedbunk. However, when using conventional feed dispensing technology, non-uniform delivery of feed rations along the length of the feedbunk often occurs. As each section of the feedbunk naturally becomes the territory of a particular animal over time, certain animals, who return to the same section of the feedbunk during each feeding cycle, are not provided with an equal amount of feed as animals along the same feedbunk. This condition along the feedbunk prevents successful modelling of animal consumption patterns, and the prediction of weight gain in response to assigned feed rations, and thus significantly effects the overall feedlot management process sought to be carried out in the feedlot. Prior art feedlot management systems and methods not only fail to address this problem, but create conditions which perpetuate it.
Prior art feedlot management methods also fail to provide feedlot operators (e.g. bunkers, feed deliverymen, veterinarians and feedlot managers) with an easy way of ascertaining the state of affairs in the feedlot outside the scope and range of their human senses. Consequently, the use of prior art systems and methods has made it very difficult for operators to collaborate in ways which minimize the time and energy required to carry out feedlot operations, while reducing feedlot operating costs and the number of employees required to support its operations.
Thus, there is a great need in the art for an improved system and method for carrying out and managing animal feedlot operations, including delivering assigning feed rations to animals in a feedlot, while avoiding the shortcomings and drawbacks of prior art systems and methods.